GEORGIA 




PHILADELPHIA: 

B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1890. 




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F 291 
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GEORGIA 




PHILADELPHIA: 

B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1890. 



GEORGIA. 






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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1890. 



Copyright, 1890, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 



GEORGIA. 



Georgia, the most southerly of the original thirteen 
states which composed the American confederation, is 
bounded N. by Tennessee, North Carolina, and South 
Carolina; E. by the Savannah River, which separates 
it from South Carolina, and by the Atlantic Ocean ; S. 
by the St Mary. River and Florida; and W. by the 
Chattahoochee River and Alabama. It lies between 
30° 31' 39" and 35° N. lat., and in 8i°— 85° 53' 38" 
W. long., and has a maximum length and breadth of 
320 and 256 miles, and an area of 59,475 sq. m. — a 
little more than the area of England and Wales. Upon 
the Atlantic Ocean it fronts for a distance of 128 
miles ; but the coast, low-lying and sandy, is bordered 
with islands, between which and the mainland are a 
number of sounds and creeks ; so that the total coast- 
line is said to be about 480 miles.. 

The territory of Georgia presents five physical divi- 
sions : (i) The Sea Islands, famous for their cotton (see 
Cotton), and covered with a growth of oak, palmetto, 
magnolia, cedar, pine, and myrtle; (2) the Swamp 
Region, consisting of rich alluvial lands and deltas, 
formed by the fresh- water rivers, verdant with a dense 
and semi-tropical vegetation, and admirably adapted 



. GEORGIA. 



to the production of rice ; (3) the Pine Barrens, with 
a thin soil, lying between these marsh grounds and the 
undulating red-clay lands of the interior, sheltered by 
vast forests of pitch-pine, which are highly prized as 
lumber and for naval purposes, but lonely and monot- 
onous ; (4) Middle Georgia, fertile, salubrious, hilly, 
crowned with forests of oak and hickory, the home of 
the short-staple cotton-plant, a fine fruit region, and 
yielding Indian corn, oats, wheat, and other cereals ; 
and lastly (5) Cherokee Georgia, abounding in moun- 
tains, with fertile valleys, streams, and waterfalls. 
Cereals, grasses, and cotton are profitably grown 
among the valleys and upon the hillsides of Upper 
Georgia ; and increasing attention is being bestowed 
upon the breeding of stock. In the central area of the 
last-mentioned division occurs the watershed, giving 
direction to the streams which flow respectively into 
the Gulf of Mexico on the one hand, and into the 
Atlantic Ocean on the other. The entire state is well 
watered. Of the rivers emptying into the Atlantic 
Ocean the most noteworthy are the Savannah, naviga- 
ble as far as Augusta ; the Great Ogeechee ; the 
Altamaha, through its tributaries the Oconee and the 
Ocmulgee navigable as high as Milledgeville and 
Macon ; the Satilla ; and the St Mary. The streams 
belonging to the Gulf system are the upper waters of 
the Coosa ; the Chattahoochee, navigable as far as 
Columbus ; the Flint, navigable up to Albany ; and 
the Alapaha. 

With the exception of the swamp-region in the 
south and south-east of the state, the climate is salu- 
brious and agreeable. The mean temperature is 78° 



GEORGIA. 



5 



in summer and 47° in winter; the annual rainfall 
nearly 50 inches. In the lowlands oranges and other 
semi-tropical fruits readily mature, whilst in the up- 
lands peaches, apples, pears, &c. flourish ; and fruits 
and market vegetables generally, being earlier than in 
the North, are exported in considerable quantities. 
The forests contain numerous species of oak, including 
the evergreen live-oak, which has been styled the king, 
as the Magnolia grandiflora has been styled the queen 
of the southern woods. Of great value is the long- 
leaf pine, furnishing both choice timber and naval 
stores. The list of useful native woods includes also 
the red, the white, and the post oak, the water-oak, the 
black walnut, the red cedar, the cypress, the poplar, 
and the locust. Among the indigenous flora are found 
valuable medicinal herbs and dye-plants ; and the 
flowers often are of great beauty. Game is still abun- 
dant, in spite of the injury resulting from the failure to 
enact and enforce stringent laws for its preservation. 
Sea-fowl throng the coast and estuaries, alligators are 
numerous in the rivers, and food-fishes, oysters, clams, 
turtle, &c. are abundant. By reason of the denudation 
of their banks, rendering their waters turbid and causing 
unruly currents, the fresh-water streams have suffered 
material diminution in their animal life. From them 
food-fishes, once so abundant, have largely disappeared, 
and the pearl-bearing unio is now seldom seen; but 
the United States Fish Commission has been success- 
ful in the introduction of some varieties of fishes better 
suited to the changed condition. 

The mineral wealth of Georgia is apparent in the 
gold-bearing strata of the Cherokee region, which for 



6 GEORGIA. 

the past fifty years have been successfully worked, in 
extensive deposits of coal, in iron, copper, silver, and 
lead ores, in marbles of attractive varieties, in vast 
fields of granite and slate, and in the presence of 
gypsum, limestone, syenite, marl, buhrstone, soap- 
stone, asbestos, shales, tripoli, fluor-spar, kaolin, clays, 
porcelain, aragonite, tourmaline, emerald, carnelian, 
ruby, opal, chalcedony, agate, amethyst, jasper, gar- 
nets, rose-quartz, beryl, and occasional diamonds. In 
1837-64 the United States branch mint at Dahlonega 
coined gold bullion to the value of over six million 
dollars, mostly from metals extracted from the aurifer- 
ous rocks of the adjacent territory. To the develop- 
ment of these mineral resources of the state much 
attention is being paid, and with profitable results. 
Prior to the civil war the inhabitants of Georgia were 
almost exclusively engaged in agriculture and com- 
merce ; but more recent industries are the lumber trade, 
and extensive cotton, woollen, and other manufactures. 
The most important mills are at Augusta, Columbus, 
Atlanta, Athens, and Roswell. Recent statistics show 
that there are now within the state 54 cotton and 
woollen mills, with 350,000 spindles and 8000 looms; 
while the lumber, flour, grist, and pulp mills, &c. are 
being multiplied, and the iron and steel trade in the 
north-western part of the state is overtaking the cotton 
manufacture in importance. 

Although, since the civil war, the production of 
black-seed cotton on the sea islands and along the 
coast has materially diminished, the yield of short 
staple cotton has greatly increased. The average crop 
of this variety will now approximate 1,000,000 bales, 



GEORGIA. 7 

worth at the point of consumption or of export over 
;^40,ooo,ooo. Of the other yearly agricultural products 
of Georgia the rice crop (25,000,000 pounds), the 
Indian corn (25,000,000 bushels), wheat, oats, sweet 
potatoes, and tobacco are important ; and there is a 
yearly yield of 600,000 gallons of syrup, 650 hogs- 
heads of cane-sugar, 5,000,000 pounds of butter, and 
700,000 pounds of honey. From the ports of Savan- 
nah, Darien, Brunswick, and St Mary shipments of 
lumber and naval stores are annually increasing. 
Navigable rivers and an admirable system of railways 
(over 3000 miles), besides three short canals, furnish 
convenient transportation from the interior. Notably 
at Savannah, coastwise and foreign bound steamers 
and sailing-vessels convey the products of the region 
to the desirable markets of the world. 

The state is divided into 137 counties, 10 congres- 
sional districts, i supreme judicial district, 21 judicial 
circuits, and numerous militia districts. Atlanta is the 
capital, and Savannah the commercial metropolis. 
Augusta, Macon, Columbus, and Athens may be men- 
tioned among the thriving cities and towns of this 
commonwealth. The population has steadily increased 
from 82,548 in 1790 to (i860) 1,057,286; (1870) 
1,184,109; (1880) 1,542,180. It is now estimated to 
exceed 1,750,000, of whom the whites form slightly 
more than half 

There exists in Georgia a thorough system of free 
common schools ; separate schools are conducted for 
both white and coloured pupils. Opportunities for 
higher education are afforded by the university of 
Georgia, at Athens, by its dependent colleges at 



8 GEORGIA. 

Dahlonega, Milledgeville, Thomasville, Cuthbert, and 
Atlanta, and by sundry denominational colleges. At 
the university of Georgia and its dependent colleges 
tuition for Georgians is free. Georgia has also a school 
for the blind at Macon, for the education of the deaf 
and dumb at Cave Spring, and an asylum for lunatics 
near Milledgeville. 

History. — The colony of Georgia was founded by 
James Oglethorpe (q. v.) in 1733, as a refuge for poor 
debtors and for the persecuted Protestants of Germany, 
and received its name in honour of George II. In 
1752 Oglethorpe surrendered his charter to the British 
government. Georgia was thereafter classed as an 
English province, untH, with her sister colonies, she 
succeeded in casting off her allegiance to the crown. 
Save during the few years of the civil war, she has 
since continued a component member of the confedera- 
tion of the United States of America, and has long 
been regarded as the Empire State of the South. 
Despite the liberation of her slave population, which 
in i860 numbered 450,033, and was valued at ;^302,- 
694,855, and in the face of grievous losses occasioned 
by the war, the state has during the last quarter of a 
century manifested recuperative powers of a marvellous 
sort. 



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